Reviewers must die! Or must they?

[Kazuki Dekiru]

Yo, how many of you have ever read, listened to, or watched a review that you truly hated? How many reviewers have you witnessed say something bad about an anime, video game, manga, movie, or television show that you really admired and encouraged you to send online death threats? How many of you strongly felt these reviewers had no idea what the fondu they were thinking and thus felt they should lose their job?

I'll admit, I've had my fair share of revealing such strong emotions to certain reviewers who's names will remain anonymous. *cough*X-PLAY*cough*. However, what if these people know something about a review that us fans don't know? I wanted to share this podcast that came out a month ago, but I feel deserve some listening to.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/anncast/2009-11-20

Skip to 15:37 into the podcast (or not. Depends if you wanna hear the Naruto HFL joke before that) and basically, Zac Bertsky and Bamboo Dong (yes it's a weird name) along with special guests Mike Toole of Otaku USA magazine, Brad Rice of Japanator.com, and Clarissa Graffeo or Animeworldorder.com have said something about how reviews work and their experiences with making reviews.

So I made this thread so you can share your thoughts on reviews. Love 'em, hate 'em and why? Do you agree or disagree with the people in the podcast? And how do you think a review "should" be made?

Debate now!

[Leafy]

All a reviewer does is put there opinion on something, although most of them are right

[NarutoRulez]

I don't like reviews in general. They are sometimes really mean, just because the person reviewing something thinks he/she is sooo funny when they write corny jokes over movies.

Also, reviews only state the writer's opinion, meaning if the reviewer doesn't like sci-fi movies, and watches Star Wars, the movie isn't going to be rated a 10/10, ten being the best...

Reviews should be made my a certain guide or pattern, so different sites reviewing different things will criticize different things of the movie. For example:

Website A reviews by a pattern like this:
Action:
Bla bla bla bla
Humor:
Bla bla bla bla

and so on.

Website B focuses on for example fight scenes.

That way people that want to know general things about movies, could choose website A and the other websites can go more into detail. That's better than hearing ten different opinions and STILL not knowing whether the movie/game/manga (...) is good or not.

[ThePurpleChidori]

I think reviewers are just voicing their opinion. However, I've seen someone trash something just because they couldn't watch/play it for some reason, so they'd say:

Reviewer: This is lacking graphics, humor, music, and overall gameplay. I am no big fan of this game... But I heard about it, and played it for about two minutes, so I know what I'm talking about.

Me: *slaps reviewer* O rlly?

[Kazuki Dekiru]

I would like to say that as far as reviewing anime, I love it when the expert ones don't ever compare the adaptation to the manga unlike how everyone else vaguely does. I don't get why... no actually, ya know what, I do get why many fans would do that, but it's a silly reason to be frank. It's like "oh! Dis anime sux becuz it's not az gud az da manga! So go read da manga insted!"

I find it silly because not only are you comparing a complete anime series (or even incomplete) to the original, incomplete manga of the same series, but you are comparing two different art forms. The stories being told in animation are different than stories being told in comic art, not just visually despite involving sequential drawings, but also as far as storytelling.

Case in point, I just saw the ending of Soul Eater and I've heard all over the place that the ending sucked and as a result, the anime sucks compared to the manga. I'll admit the ending was quite cheesy, however if you look back at all the other 50 episodes of the series and payed close attention to the themes of the story, it's kinda cheesy in general. And that's fine honestly because as cheesy as it was, the stylistic, Tim Burton-like art directon, the consistent good animations, and the steady-pacing of storytelling (almost 0% fillers) within only 51 episodes makes it definitely make it very entertaining as far as shonen series are.

One thing I also can't stand are when fans instinctively and even unanimously love an anime series and I never get why, and they hardly explain why either. For example I don't get why so many fans like one of my friends are so into Spice & Wolf and Strike Witches. Spice & Wolf is based on historical economics while Strike Witches is based on a special unit of girls in a very fictional alternate World War 2 setting with too much fanservice and not enough pants.

Unless it has to do with traits of all the main characters like with K-ON or Lcuky Star, I wouldn't understand what hardcore fans see in those shows for any other reason. I hard to comprehend how they could look past economics and underaged panties.

[OnyxBlossom]

IMO, reviewers have a right to say what they think/feel. Sometimes, the reviews I get make me upset, but I get over it. If something on my work needs well.....work, then I'll make it better; if it's adding too much of something, I'll lessen it.

But if it's not my work people are reviewing, then I don't really care what they have to say; if I like an anime/manga and someone doesn't and gives a bad review on it, that's their opinion, not mine.